India at CWG: Boxers assure 5 medals, Sharath-Amalraj win silver

India at CWG: Boxers assure 5 medals, Sharath-Amalraj win silver

Led by Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Singh, Indian pugilists stole the limelight on the ninth day of the competitions with four of them assuring silver medals for India while paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj bagged a silver in the men's doubles event of the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Friday.

By virtue of these medals, India have consolidated its fifth spot in the standings with 51 medals (13 gold, 23 silver, 15 bronze). England lead the chart (140 medals), followed by Australia (124), Canada (75) and hosts Scotland (49).

India at CWG: Boxers assure 5 medals, Sharath-Amalraj win silver

Star boxer Vijender produced yet another dominating performance against Connor Coyle of Northern Ireland in the men's middleweight (75kg) in an unanimous 3-0 verdict by the judges to book a place in the final and lead an Indian charge on the penultimate day of boxing competitions.

India at CWG: Boxers assure 5 medals, Sharath-Amalraj win silver

Mandeep Jangra (men's 69kg), Laishram Devendro Singh (men's 46-49kg) and L Sarita Devi (women's 57- 60kg) also boxed their way to the finals while Pinki Rani (women's 51kg) lost her semifinal bout to settle for a bronze.

Pinki, who had beaten Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom in the national trials to make it to the Indian boxing squad, gave a valiant fight but could not pack enough punch against a taller opponent.

India at CWG: Boxers assure 5 medals, Sharath-Amalraj win silver

Seema, who had won a bronze in 2010 Delhi Games and a silver in 2006 Melbourne, threw the discus to 61.61m, her season's best, to grab the silver late last night while a struggling Krishna could just come up with a below-par effort of 57.84m.

However, promising shuttler P C Thulasi crashed out in the quarterfinals of the women's singles event after losing 21-18, 19-21, 19-21 against Malaysia's Jing Yi Tee.

It was good news for India in the women's doubles event as well as defending champions Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa stormed into the semifinals with a comfortable 21-10, 21-9 win over Sri Lankan pair of Achini Rathnasiri and Upuli Weerasinghe.

India at CWG: Boxers assure 5 medals, Sharath-Amalraj win silver

India also missed out on a historic bronze medal in the lawn bowl men's fours team event after the quartet of Kamal Kumar Sharma, Chandan Kumar Singh, Samit Malhotra and Dinesh Kumar squandered a huge lead midway to lose to Australia in the third-place encounter.

India at CWG: Boxers assure 5 medals, Sharath-Amalraj win silver

Meanwhile, apart from the women's doubles pair of Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa, it turned out to be a rather disappointing in office for Indian squash players.

Pallikal and Chinappa assured at least a silver medal by entering the final of the women's doubles event.

Pallikal and Chinappa beat Australian combination of Kasey Brown and Rachael Grinham 2-1 (11-9, 7-11, 11-4) to seal their place in the gold medal match, where they will face English pair of Jenny Duncalf and Laura Massaro.

But Saurav Ghosal and Pallikal crashed out of the mixed double event after being easily beaten 2-0 (11-6, 11-9) in the quarterfinals by Australia's David Palmer and Rachael Grinham

Another Indian mixed doubles pair of Harinder Pal Sandhu and Chinappa also bowed out in the quarterfinals after losing a hard-fought 11-7, 8-11, 6-11 battle against second-seeded New Zealand pair of Martin Knight and Joelle King.